Ever wanted to take control of your Mac without taking your hands off your keyboard? Alfred's an app launcher and utility that makes that possible. With just a little bit of setup and know-how, you'll be able to use Alfred to search for anything, anywhere, move around files, control software, and more without ever…

Android: When you need to quickly start any app, Slide Launcher can be your best friend. It's fast, it's pretty and it's really light on the resources, claiming no RAM and battery usage while running in the background.

Android: Similar to Quad Drawer, AppDialer is another launcher for Android that uses the old-school T9 keypad for input. The focus here is on speed and ease, as AppDialer thinks a T9 keyboard is faster for entry than a standard QWERTY—and the search results update in real time as well.

Android: Even the tidiest Android phone can a pain to browse if you have a tons of apps and cluttered home screens. Quad Drawer gets you to your apps faster. The app can sort your apps the way you like, or let you type their name on a T9 or your regular keyboard to open them.

Android: There are plenty of great Android launchers that let you customize your device to your heart's content. Newcomer on the block, Everything.me, is less about tweaking your phone's design and more about automatically showing you the apps and information you need, according to what you're looking for at the…

Last month, the Mac application launcher Alfred updated with a ton of improvements, but the most interesting feature is the new Workflows system that makes it easy for anyone to create their own speed-boosting shortcuts. We want to see yours, but if you haven't played around with Workflows yet we've got you covered…

OS X: Quicksilver, the app launcher and desktop search tool for Mac (and one of your favorites) just emerged from beta this week, adding a wealth of new features to help you modify your catalogs, create shortcuts and synonyms for the fils you want to access, and more, all while shedding its beta tag.

App switchers are a fast and flexible way to move between the app you have open and the one you want to use. No swiping through home screens, no endless scrolling through your app drawer. Here are some of the best, and how to pick the one that's right for you.

Android: Sidebar is an application switcher that lives on the side of your screen, ready to launch your favorite apps or just switch you between currently running ones with a single swipe. It's fast, flexible, and lets you customize the apps in the drawer so it's not cluttered with shortcuts you don't need.

Android: Jumping from application to application in Android isn't hard, but you either have to go back to your home screen or hop between open apps by swiping from side to side, but Swapps! is a new utility that lets you pull up a list of open and recently used apps on the side of the screen at any time to get right…

Do you still launch applications by pressing the Windows key and searching for your app? That's a serviceable way to get your apps up and running, but it's pretty limited. If you've never used an app launcher, now's the time to try one: they're faster and more powerful than any built-in search system, and they can do…

OS X: I've always liked the idea of hot corners, but they don't come with a ton of different options—plus I'd end up accidentally setting them off all the time. CornerClick changes your hot corners to activate with a click or a long hover, so you won't accidentally activate them, while also adding tons of other…

The popular Linux distribution Ubuntu recently finalized its move to the new Unity interface, while other Linux distributions are moving to the new GNOME 3 shell. Both interfaces are remarkably different than the Linux environments you're used to, but remarkably similar to one another. So which one is better for you?…